Weekly Stuff

It's been a rather quiet week. Abigail continues to grow stronger. She'd really like to be walking.

"Sit!" I tell her.
We attended the OctoberFest/ Thanksgiving Day Parade on Monday and she enjoyed that

It was a great parade. Very long. It was a beautiful day too.
Sunday we had Robin's cousins over for dinner. We also played Unexploded Cows. I won. (This is a rarity for me!) Abigail tried to play too.


Yesterday I picked up some feeding supplies for Abigail. I bought a couple of Safe Sippy cups because she hasn't taken to a bottle, so we may skip right to a sippy cup. We'll need them eventually. I also found this mesh-bag-on-a-stick feeder (called the Baby Safe Feeder). It's a nifty invention (yet another dad invention, like the Snappi) that you stick non-pureed food into and allow them to eat/teeth on. The mesh bag keeps them from choking on pieces and encourages chewing (as they mush the food out). Yesterday we tried apple and she had a great time biting down and tasting the juice. Later in the evening I put banana in to show Robin. Banana was definitely messier.


You may have noticed that I changed up the layout here a little. I have added a video feature on the sidebar, which should show the most recent videos I've put on Youtube. There are two new videos up! Enjoy.

Happy Thanksgiving / Turkey Day

From our family to all of yours.
Enjoy feasting.

This photo is from a medieval wedding we attended this fall.
As you can see, Abigail is not always as smiley as the photos portray her.

Video Mania. Again.

I uploaded these videos yesterday, so they'll be ready to view now. Here are some short insights into my days...

Abigail crawls everywhere. She climbs everything she can get to. She babbles away. She pulls all her books off the shelves and tosses them across the room, followed by wooden blocks. But pull out the camera and her world freezes. CAMERA! I've created a monster. I have to try and be more sneaky with the camera now.


But my suffering (as non-painful as it is) is nothing compared to Darla's (and Monkey and Fenwick's when Abigail catches them). Both fortunately and unfortunately for them, she is easily distracted.



The final short video is not ordinary, but it's too cute not to share. Here is Abigail as a fairy, flying through bubbles at a recent wedding.

A New Friend for Abigail

7 months and one day apart they are.
Abigail has a new friend, born yesterday to our friends Tay and Mike. We haven't seen her yet, but she's a lovely pink little thing. 8lbs (just like Abbie was) and 20" long. She was born yester-eve at 1749h after only 2.5 hours of active labour.
Yes, I am jealous. But moreso I am very happy for our friends and glad that Tay had a short labour. I look forward to hearing more from her. They have yet to choose the baby's name. Like us, they want to get to know her a little first.

Happy Birthday Robin / troublemaker

I hope you are all leaving birthday wishes on Robin's wall.
Today he got the Star Wars Transformer Death Star Deluxe Edition from Abigail. (Okay, we all know who really got it, but as a toy it seemed more appropriate from Abigail.) He also got a new muffin pan, one he can use to make Yorkshire Puddings at the proper high temperature. Every time he makes them he complains that with the non-stick pan he can't set the oven high enough to get a proper Yorkshire Pudding. I bet I know one item we're having for Thanksgiving dinner this year! Corey sent some DVDs. My mom already gave him his gift while we were in Winnipeg - Blue Bomber shirt and hat and baby-wear.

Now, on to me. Or Abbie. However you want to frame it. Have I mentioned that Abigail is not satisfied with crawling on all fours? She'd much rather walk on her knees. She finds whatever she can climb up on and pushes it around infront of her. She gets into everything! I know, this is normal, but it doesn't make my life any easier!

The co-sleeper is no longer at this height.



Poor animals... it doesn't take her long to locate, zoom in, and crawl over to grab them now.

Ran for the Cure

Robin and Abigail were "walking briskly" for the cure today.


It was a cool morning. Perfect for runners and people with babies strapped to their chest.

Abigail and Robin extend a great big thank you to all of their supporters. Together you raised $385 for finding the cure for breast cancer. Combined with the thousands of other runners in KW and multiplied by multiple run locations across the country... well, it adds up quickly. You'll have to check the CIBC webpage for a final amount this week. If you're interested.

Ever Changing

Two days after she figured out crawling on a textured surface (carpet, futon, etc), Abigail mastered the strength to crawl on the new laminate floors also. She also enjoys pulling herself up into a kneeling position so that she may better look out over her world from a new height. Today I dropped her co-sleeper bed down to its lower (playpen level) setting because she has begun to pull herself up to the outer edges of it and look out. It is very adorable, however, since she also likes to then push up onto her feet at an angle, she could easily have launched herself over the edge if she tried. Fortunately she did not! This morning she is taking her first nap in her "crib" (still her co-sleeper, but it is no longer at bed level).

We have a busy weekend ahead. Robin is meeting up with some work buddies for drinks tonight to celebrate his birthday (this Monday). Abigail and I will be meeting up with colleagues this afternoon for coffee and stimulating discussion (or such is the hope/plan). Tomorrow Abi and I will be at Pagan Pride Day in Waterloo Park where, among other things, I will be facilitating a discussion of Pagan parenting. Sunday we are Running (walking) for the Cure in the morning and that afternoon I will be doing field research. Monday is Robin's birthday. He asked me for a shoe-horn today for his birthday. Wow, if I'd known it was that simple... I guess I can go return his gift now. I suspect the shoe-horn is so that he doesn't have to undo the laces on his new shoes. These are real shoes! Not Vans or runners.

She Crawled!

Abigail and I attended a workshop on university lecturing today. She was not the most attentive listener, although the workshop leader was quite engaging. Quite coincidentally I found us sitting next to our former neighbour, Megan, from CLV. When Robin and I first moved to Waterloo we were pleased to have a neighbour who was also from Winnipeg. I haven't seen her since we moved out of CLV over 3 years ago. She recognized me too. As we were talking after the workshop Abigail was playing on the (clean-looking) floor. She'd had enough of being carried! She'd been playing under a table, so to entice her out for easier picking-up Megan put some blue paper on the floor. She crawled straight to it. At first I started to comment how funny it is that she will (tummy) crawl to paper and animals and toys, but not to mommy or daddy. Then I stopped and said "holy 'poop'!" She was actually crawling. I had almost taken it for granted, thinking what I was watching was her usual tummy crawl. No, this was on all fours! A real crawl!!! It was forward motion, coordinated movements of hands and knees.
Now, to catch it on camera to share.

Abigail crawls:



Abigail prepares to crawl:

Mabon and Renovations

Happy Harvest!
Last evening we celebrated Mabon, a harvest celebration, with friends in our newly renovated living and dining room.
The feast was fantastic! Robin made a pot roast with yorkshire puddings and a sweet potatoe and apple dish. I made a kale, zucchini, avocado salad. Friends brought more harvest foods including squash, a peach cobbler, and ginger pear pie. So very yummy.

Are you hungry now too?
On to renovation photos:




It is very open now. Abigail and I are loving the space. As every new wood floor owner with pets discovers, there is a lot of hair on the floor. Of course, it has always been there, it was just better hidden by the carpet. Now I see each strand. Fortunately we have a Magic Blue sweeper (like a swiffer but with reusable microfiber rather than wasteful disposable cloths) and clean up is a breeze.

Abigail is teething again. Maybe she will finally get a tooth! I know, I've been saying that for quite some time now. Months even. More on Abigail later this week. I have some lovely photos to share. Or you can just pop over to Flickr to see them.

Running for the Cure

Robin here, I know its been a while since I posted but I figure Mandy does a pretty good job at keeping people up to date. I just want to leave a quick post that Abigail and me will be participating in this year's Run for the Cure on Oct 5th in honour of her Grandmother Marion. In you wish to support the cause against breast cancer and sponsor us then please visit the following link where you can donate online: https://www.cibcrunforthecure.com/html/personal_page.asp?track=3011996&languageid=1

Until next time....